having concerns about my EM

[cs2sgrl]

Hi Everyone.
Well I will be getting married in 3 months and My EM has yet to contact me. I havent gotten a phone call or email. I have been in contact with the woman that will be at the planning session with us but she will not be our EM. I am begining to get upset that I have no way of getting in contact with my EM. Has anyone every used Justin Reagan??

Toni

 

[Fantasia Sam]

OK I'm confused why is your Planning Session with another EM and not the one you've been assigned to? is your assigned EM on holiday then or something?

How long has it been since you had signed your contracts - You're having a custom wedding right? I heard from my EM 2/3 weeks after I had signed my contracts she sent me an email. Have you checked your junk mail filter first off to check that a mail hasn't gone in there by mistake - this happened to me hence I'm making that suggestion.

If it's been over 3 weeks since you've been assigned and you are having a custom wedding then yes that is pretty poor show not to even have an introductory email. I suggest you call your Sales Manager and tell them you're concerned and ask her to intervene.

 

[tinkerbela]

rob and i are having a custom wedding. about 2 or 3 weeks after we sent in the signed contract along with the deposit, we heard from our EM. i don't know how come you haven't heard from yours yet. i would start making some phone calls to see what the deal is. maybe call your SM to see if he/she knows what's going on.

 

[ellieb]

cs2sgrl- I would definately call!!! Your wedding is only 3 months away!!!! OMG I would died if I didn not hear anything at all that close to my wedding. However, rest assure that once you do call things will be all set

 

[Fantasia Sam]

And then you can set communication expectations up with your EM - i.e. telling your preferred communication and when etc whilst the EM will tell you how busy they are but that they will answer your questions but they may give you an expected time frame.

 

[marn913]

I would give them a call for two reasons --- First, you will want to confirm your planning session. They may not have called you because they know that you are coming for a planning session! You won't really realize until the wedding is over how "routine" the planning is on the Disney end of things. They will not call you every week or even every month! Second, you may have a particularly hard time reaching Justin Reagan -- last I knew he was the director of Fairytale weddings! It may help to get the name and number of his assistant. He took over for us for a couple weeks when our original EM left Disney. We were eventually reassigned to another EM.
Your planning session is were most of the decisions will be made - so there isn't much reason for them to call since they know you will be meeting with them in person. From there it's a matter of reviewing and making any changes necessary to the tentative budget that they will send after the planning session. You will get three budgets, one for floral, one for entertainment and one for everything else. Once you set things in stone then you will worry about billing (which they say is due 30 days ahead...we didn't get our bill until about 2 weeks before the wedding!)
I really noticed that they did not seem to call (at all!) Disney will only contact you if it's necessary, so you will need to take the lead if you want to make any changes. E-mail workd best, because EM's are rarely sitting at their desks. Once your wedding day is here you will better understand the reasons why. You EM literally spends the entire day attending to your every need and supervises the entire day (they don't sit in the office at all!) Your planning session will give you a little taste of how it works.
Don't get too stressed, if you have questions or start to freak out, just call them! You can usually always talk to the assistant to your EM, and they will pull your file and answer all of your questions. I think we only spoke to our EM twice before the wedding day (after our planning session), all the rest of our problems and changes were handled by the support staff and our sales manager.

Good Luck
-Marne
06-16-03

 

[Kristi1357]

WAAAY back when we got married in 1999, we ended up with Justin. Our EM (Melissa?) was horrible - made ALOT of major mistakes. So much so, that if we could have cancelled our wedding and just eloped at home, we would have. But everyone had plane tickets already (only about one month out).

Anyway, Justin made everything right (incl. bending some rules for our troubles) and was absolutely awesome! I think he was the director at that time also.

Good Luck!
Kristi

 

[LisaLovesDisney]

Hi There.
My EM changed 6 times in the year before our wedding day (with the very last EM change ON MY WEDDING DAY!). I guess Disney moves people around alot. But if you don't call they really don't make the initiative to contact you. Maybe your EM changed?? Definitly call to find out and just to touch base!

 

[cs2sgrl]

I think that what I will do is just wait until after the planning session. I will voice my concerns and find out if he is the director of Fairytale weddings, I am confused though. If he is the Director that should mean that he is really good correct? But that would mean that he is even more busy than the other EM's. Should I be worried that he may not have the time to take my wedding seriously or should I trust that if things get crazy he will hand my wedding to someone else. But then should I be nervous about someone else handling it?

My DF says that I get to worried about things too quickly, I lost my Visa card yesterday and went crazy crying only to find it at home in a pair of pants from the other day.

Should I not worry about this situation? I think I will wait until maybe next Thursday, that way it will have been almost a week since the session and by then he should call to go over certain things, I think I will ask the other EM helping us to make a note in my wedding folder to have him call us so that we feel better about being in contact with our EM.

See that is what bothers me most, he(nor an assistant) have bothered to say " Hi, My name is ______, we will be helping to plan your wedding, sorry we couldnt be there at the planning session but here is my phone and email incase you have concerns..

That is the only problem I have so far/.


Toni

 

[RubySlipperGirl]

Toni,

Sorry to hear of your problems. Justin Reagan is NOT the Director of DFTW. He is on the Convention Services Team at the Yacht Club Resort. His direct number is 407-934-3306. You should contact him directly, if for anything just to touch base prior to your planning session.

Good Luck!

 

[marn913]

Toni,
Like the last poster said, call to confirm your planning session. I know they rearranged things at FTW last year just before our wedding, so Justin may no longer be in charge of everything. They arranged it so that each event manager is associated with a particular event/reception location - for us it was an EM who handles Epcot events because our reception was at the living seas (they are event managers for other events in addition to weddings).
Most (if not all) of your major decisions will be done at the planning session, so just call and confirm the time/date etc. Also, if you requested food and/or cake tasting confirm that as well.
Once you have made your choices, you probably won't hear back from FTW until they send out your final budget. So if you want to make changes/additions - you have to initiate the calls. They will not call to "confirm" or check if you want to add on anything. The process can be nerve wracking, but I think it is because it appears way too simple (on their end). You tell them what you want, pay for it and they do it -- that's it! It's not like a traditional wedding planner who checks and double checks. In the end the event manager is just that -- he/she manages the actual event, they are not "planners", you make the plan and tell them what you want and their job is to supervise the big day and make sure it's all done correctly.
For your planning session, bring swatches of fabric, pictures of your dress/bridesmaid's dresses and pictures of flowers and arrangements that you like. Be straight forward about how much you want to spend. The sky is the limit, but if you want to stay within a specific range on certain things they won't pressure you to spend more, they will work to give you the most for your money! Most of all, enjoy your planning session, and don't freak out too much they will make sure your day is perfect and in the end you'll laugh about how much you worried (I did!) Good luck!

-Marne
06-16-03
WP/LS

 

[cs2sgrl]

well I have double and even triple checked my planning session for Friday. I have emailed with Diane Bowen a few times about my session and we set up a food tasting and cake tasting. We have other problems now though. We were planning on staying through the weekend and going to the parks with our left over days from the hopper tickets that we bought last year but lastnight I noticed on the back of the ticket an expiration date. See last year when we bought them it was a Disney Salutes the Military Discount ticket, we got our tickets for $99. for a 5 day hopper pass, I didnt realize that the tickets were going to expire and we dont really have the money to spend in disney right now, saving for the wedding and all. Plus we were sharing a room with our Friends from FL that we went with last year, if the tickets truely are not good they will not be able to spend the money either.. I have been so sad all day. I am waiting until 0800 to call and see if the tickets are indeed expired.

Other than that DF joined the board. I hope that he posts soon, his name is Darknight.


I was wondering!! I am having my reception at the boardwalk and my ceremony at the pavilion. Is there a reason the two people from the Yact club are assisting me. Do they just do all the resorts??-

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Toni - it is my understanding that the Yacht & Beach CLub Convention center staff are also responsible for weddings at SBP and The Boardwalk. Maybe they are also responsible for any conventions at The Boardwalk too as it is a smaller convention center than the Y&B.

I just realised that I have met Justin myself he introduced himself to us at our planning session because our original EM was called away unexpectedly and so we had a stand in, who eventually became our EM anyway.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your trip this weekend Toni.

 

[ypmurg]

Justin needs you to call until you get mad at him. then he might send you an email. Just stay on top of him and he will take care of you just make sure that you take good notes of everything you want because you might have to remind a second or third time.